SAVANNAH — When it comes to a long-standing headache for motorists here, there finally might be light at the end of the tunnel.
A President Street railroad crossing is notorious for backing up traffic going in and out of the city’s downtown historic district. Chatham County is studying options to ease the congestion, including a flyover that would let drivers avoid delays that can last more than a half-hour.
Many Savannahians have known the feeling running on about 20 years now. So have tourists when they try to drive between the city and the popular beaches at Tybee Island.
“A train can really mess up your day,” Mayor Van Johnson said at a September news conference.
A solution is still likely years away, despite renewed momentum.
Traffic on the key thoroughfare is stopped both ways when a train needs to cross President Street about a half-mile from the eastern edge of the historic district.
The crossing can be blocked from less than five minutes to more than 25 minutes as train cars are switched out down the line. Often, a train slowly moves back and forth across the intersection until enough cars are uncoupled for it to completely cross the street.
Meanwhile, traffic builds both ways on a thoroughfare that averages 32,000 vehicles a day. It can take another 10 minutes for the traffic to dissipate after a train passes, the county said, especially because some trucks and buses are required to stop at all railroad crossings. Eastbound traffic can back up for more than a mile, said a report the county released this year.
And there is no set schedule at the Savannah & Old Fort Railroad train yard, the county said, so motorists never know for sure if or when they’ll get stuck at the crossing.
Whitney Holt of Wilmington Island said she makes sure to leave for work at the same time every day to try to avoid delays. She said she still ends up waiting for a train to cross two or three times a month.
“There’s been times when I just started meetings in my car because I know I’m going to be stuck there for 20-30 minutes,” said Holt, who attended a public meeting on the issue Tuesday.
President Street is the eastern gateway to the historic district. It also takes drivers west to neighborhoods and business districts on Wilmington, Whitemarsh, Tybee and other islands, many of them destinations for locals and tourists alike.
More than 15,000 people a day use President Street to access Truman Parkway, which provides north-south connectivity throughout the city. One of the parkway access ramps meets President Street within 100 feet of the railroad crossing, which compounds the traffic issue.
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
A county report said trains stopped traffic for an average of 40 minutes a day from 6 a.m. to midnight during a two-week observation period in February. The crossings were spread throughout the day.
The city and a rail operator made an informal agreement in 2007 to limit crossings during morning and afternoon rush hours. Only two crossings were recorded from 4-7 p.m. during the observation period, but trains stopped traffic for about nine minutes a day from 6-9 a.m.
“I’m very concerned about emergency services getting to where they need to be. I’m concerned about people catching flights and people getting to work and people getting their kids to school,” Johnson said.
The county sought feedback this week on potential solutions as part of a study it is conducting with the city and the Coastal Region Metropolitan Planning Organization. The railroad crossing is near a jurisdictional boundary between the city and county.
Two long-term proposals were presented at open house meetings. Both would elevate President Street over the railroad track with a flyover. One would extend the flyover to intersect with Truman Parkway and the other would bring it back down to street level just before a parkway on-ramp.
A proposed short-term solution would add a westbound lane to President Street from the parkway through the railroad crossing “to help people get through the delay quicker,” Chatham County senior transportation engineer Deana Brooks said. The additional lane would be about a five-year project and a flyover would be 10 to 15 years out, Brooks said.
The county plans to apply for funding through the federal Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant Program. A President Street flyover has appeared on at least two Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendums that failed. In 2009, the city was unable to secure federal stimulus money to pay for it.
At one point, the city fined a former railroad operator for blocking the crossing during rush hour, before the company challenged it in court and won.
Officials project that truck traffic at the President Street-Truman Parkway interchange will more than double by 2032. That’s partly due to all of the industrial development underway or planned along the Savannah River waterfront, including the city’s expanding port.
A report identifying the preferred improvement plan and estimated costs will be released in the spring. Some local media reports in recent years estimated the flyover would cost more than $20 million.
“We’re all on board with this,” Johnson said. “Something has to change.”
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